21 comments:

That was always part of the strategy. Get so much in place that the Conservatives, Libertarians, and Republicans would be faced with a fait accompli by election time because, of course, the promise of it would be so popular.

"Obama and Pelosi promised us that "The Affordable Care Act" (laughs) would save money! So much for that."

Not just them.

One of the liberal commenters here (RV) pimped the lie of "ER care is expensive, so the ACA saves money by providing cheaper care," conspicuously ignoring the simple fact that the ACA will cost many times more than what ER care now costs us.

Romney should runs ads that show Obama spouting his BS about the "Affordable Care Act"(laughs) and then talk seriously about the reality. The reality that the "ACA" (laughs) has done nothing but drive people out of their current plans, it has raised premiums for everyone across the board, and it is killing completive insurance programs. Everyone knows this is the democrat's ultimate goal. ACA (laughs) will force everyone into the government exchange. Soon to be Single Payer – an unsustainable unaffordable poorly run government system.The ACA (laughs) has also forced Urgent Care facilities to cut back on nurses replaced by unaccountable government bureaucrats. These new-hires are not there to help with patients, no no. They are hired to write the cumbersome and ridiculous software that will help the democrats and with their absurd goals.

Obama et al are simply following on the practice of NYCs famed builder Robert Moses (see: "The Power Broker" by Robert Caro) who realized that "sunk costs" were everything. He would keep his work crews going 24/7 on controversial projects to lay as much concrete & steel as possible before anyone could even THINK of getting a stop-work order or injunction--by which time so much money would have been spent and so much constructed that the court of public opinion viewed not completing the project as an even bigger waste of money than halting work.

PS re the psychology of sunk costs: A classic example is the decision on Monday to go on a large group picnic on Saturday, weather permitting. . During the week much expensive food and drink is bought and much preparation time expended. Come Saturday the urge to go on the picnic anyway rather than cancel despite the fact the weather looks very unpromising is huge because of all the effort, expense and planning already done..

" the simple fact that the ACA will cost many times more than what ER care now costs us."

It is a myth that lack of insurance drives up ER visits. It's been shown that providing insurance (and Medicaid) increases ER use. There is a subset of the population that does not plan ahead and do things like establish a relationship with a family doctor. They are the ER clientele. Urgent care clinics have siphoned off some of them but the real ER patient group always seems to show up at the ER.

Yep, I have a friend who runs the office of her husband's medical practice. They already received a bunch of money to put new computers in their office along with paperwork that they have Obamacare to thank for it. They didn't need or want new computers, but by golly they got them!

“From what I read of the initial survey results, compared to the surveyed group as a whole I was more bullish before oral argument that the justices would strike the individual mandate as an unconstitutional exercise of the Interstate Commerce Clause power. I was less surprised by the tenor of the oral arguments than others. But: although the usual caveats apply, the collegiality and tone the Court as a whole has shown since then makes me less bullish than I was. If you look at other terms where the "conservative" majority prevailed on divisive issues like this one (see for a very specific example OT2006), well before this time in the term calendar the "liberal" justices often show significant frustration with forthcoming conservative decisions by issuing stinging dissents or oral argument lines of questioning in what would otherwise be less divisive cases. For example, I wonder whether we would have seen the gentle tone we saw in the AZ immigration case from Justice Sotomayor if a decision was forthcoming that will strike down a central feature of President Obama's signature bill. Probably reading too much into it but the Court's tenor lately gives me pause.”

Thank-you, Bender. We gave the pathetic GOP the people they needed to at least stop billions going out the door for ObamaCare and what did they do? They told us to shut up and sit down. Obama obviously knew this. He knew he could spend whatever he wanted without a peep from them and he was right. Paul Ryan? He helped Obama by going on an extended vanity tour about his 'plan' to diffuse the momentum we gave the GOP and the country to stop funding ObamaCare. As far as the liar on the GOP Appropriations Committee, the GOP stuck a measure to stop funding ObamaCare in that GOP controlled committee for a year. The GOP establishment loves ObamaCare and they're fine with Obama. It's we the people they can't stand.